Nursing Diagnoses: Definitions and Classification 2001-2002, Philadelphia: North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA), 2001. 256 pages, paperback, $ 18.95.

NANDA's Nursing Diagnosis handbook is designed to be an accurate and up-to-date guide to the continuously evolving status of nursing diagnosis. It can serve as a reference for both students and practicing nurses, but the format of the book makes it more suitable for use by faculty, graduate students, and practicing nurses who are already well grounded in the theoretical underpinnings of nursing diagnosis. The book is arranged as a three part handbook that describes the changes that have occurred in the system over the last two years and thoroughly presents all of the current accepted diagnoses with their definitions, risks and related factors, and defining characteristics.

Part 1 of the handbook comprises the bulk of the content and presents the current diagnoses. Part 2 gives an overview of the history and development of Taxonomy II and explains its various concepts, domains, and classes. It also includes a description of how the old coding system developed for Taxonomy I converts in the newer version. Part 3 is very brief and reviews the various NANDA guidelines for submission of proposed revisions for current diagnoses or development of new ones. It also contains copyright specifications for use of NANDA materials and a glossary of terms.

The book's material is clearly organized and presented and contains the most accurate and current information available on this constantly changing topic. Even a brief look at the many nursing diagnosis handbooks available on the market reveals that there is a lack of uniformity in the language used to define the diagnoses and describe their characteristics. Handbooks frequently reflect the biases and points of view of their authors who often take small or significant liberties with the approved NANDA language. This handbook has the advantage of accurately reflecting the work of the organization in approving and describing diagnoses. This is particularly useful with changes such as the elimination of the qualifier "altered" from the official language. The presentation and description of Taxonomy II is also a significant strength of the book. This information is rarely included in the mass-market diagnosis handbooks in sufficient depth to be useful in understanding the complexity of the taxonomic development work. Although still brief, the coverage in this handbook clearly describes the 7 axes and presents the relationships between the major domains and classes and their underlying diagnoses in a clearly understandable fashion.

The major limitation of the handbook relates to its usefulness for undergraduate students and novice clinicians, especially for environments that do not utilize NANDA language in their protocols and documentation. It assumes a fair degree of sophistication in the use of nursing diagnosis and would not be able to stand alone as an effective resource for learners who had not received significant instruction in the NANDA approach to nursing diagnosis. The fact that the essential glossary of terms is buried at the end of part 3 is a prime example. Most popular guides spend considerable time linking diagnoses to specific patient problems in an effort to guide students in using the language in their clinical practice. This feature is not included in the NANDA guide nor is there any mention of the effort to link NANDA diagnoses with the work of the NIC/NOC project. These factors significantly limit the books usefulness in undergraduate education.